MUSICAL POLITICS WITH TOO MANY CHAIRS

Ted Kaufman is winding down his time as a U.S.
senator. Not even a lot of people in politics
have figured out how soon that is. Not even though
afterwards, it could get very messy.

Kaufman is a parenthetical senator, a Democrat tucked
into office by appointment. Because of decades of work alongside Joe Biden, he was the
closest the state could get to still having Biden for a
senator after a double election to another
six-year term and the vice presidency in 2008.

For Biden, it was a triple hedge. He could be vice
president, or he could be a senator, or he could arrange
for his political alter ego to replace him temporarily.

Never mind it could really have been a quadruple hedge,
if his son Beau Biden had not put a stop to it by
running for re-election this year as attorney general instead of
the Senate seat.

By state law, Kaufman's tenure lasts only until the
election. Literally, until the election in November. He
does not stay on until the next Congress convenes in
early January. He is out in three months.

Delaware gets its new senator so fast, Joe Biden had
better be careful if he shows up for Return Day. It is
the vice president's job to swear in the new ones. He
could find himself hustled to administer the oath for
his old seat behind the Sussex County Courthouse, where
the politicians party. Every minute of seniority
matters.

Kaufman has known all along when he would leave
office. Otherwise, word is just getting around. Also,
the ramifications.

The leading Senate candidates are both officeholders
who would leave a vacancy behind. If the winner is Chris
Coons, the Democratic underdog, the follow-up would be
straightforward, although cumbersome and inconvenient.
If it is Mike Castle, the Republican front-runner, then
watch out.

Coons is the New Castle County executive with half of
his four-year term to go. His election would mean Paul
Clark, the Democratic president of the County Council,
would move up, and a special election would be scheduled
to find another council president.

Castle is the state's lone member in the House of
Representatives. His election would leave the office
open until the 112th Congress is seated in early
January.

A House vacancy gets filled only one way. By
election, not appointment. The U.S. Constitution says
the state's executive, in this case the governor,
shall call an election if there is a vacancy.
Likewise, state law says an election shall be
held, on a day the governor shall determine.

No ifs, ands or buts here. Only
shalls.

It would make sense if the next representative-elect,
presumably either Democrat John Carney or Republican
Michele Rollins, could take office a little early, but
this is a democracy. What makes sense is not necessarily
legal.

It looks like Delaware would be forced to hold a
special election for a term dribbling from, oh, right
before Christmas to just after New Year's, less time
than it takes for a true love to distribute everything
from 12 drummers drumming and 11 pipers piping to a
partridge in a pear tree.

The governor's office? "That's an interesting
question and one we haven't asked ourselves yet," said
Brian Selander, a senior aide to Jack Markell, the
Democratic governor.

The political operatives? "Let's get through Nov. 2,"
said Erik Schramm, the Democratic chair for New Castle
County.

Legal minds looking for loopholes have not come up
with any. One lawyer, determined not to be sucked into
this morass, nevertheless blurted, "If Castle wins,
you've got a special election. Merry Christmas, ho ho
ho. And who runs?"

Yikes. Delaware could turn into the Afghanistan of
politics. No good way out.